“Air Iceland’s use of electricity was 9% lower in the first quarter of 2017 than in the corresponding quarter of the preceding year, after have completed a detailed environmental certification process in accordance with the ISO 14001 standard from IATA. Does Air Iceland have other environmental goals?”
“Yes we have in cooperation with our crew developed incentive scheme to reduce the use of fuel. This has reduced our fuel burn per passenger, and with the fleet change implemented last year we will see a further reduction in the coming years,” says Árni Gunnarsson, CEO, Air Iceland.
Air Iceland, which is a part of Icelandair Group, operates domestic in Iceland and Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Head office of Air Iceland is located in the capital, Reykjavík.
Enviroment
Air Iceland has an ambitious environmental objective, which reads:
“We recognize that our activities have an impact on the environment in terms of the use of raw materials, emissions to air and water, and waste generation, and seek to minimize this as far as is reasonably practicable.
Air Iceland has achieved the gold award from VAKINN’s Environmental criteria.
Air Iceland is committed to:
Continual improvement in our environmental performance;
Preventing pollution where possible;
Implement programs to reduce our environmental impact;
Educating, training and motivating employees to carry out tasks in an environmentally responsible manner;
Cap on CO2 emissions from 2020
Average improvement of fuel efficiency of 1.5% from 2009 – 2020
Reduction in CO2 emissions of 50% by 2050, relative to 2005 level.
It is the policy of Air Iceland to:
Promote responsible use of natural resources.
Reduce waste by recycling and minimizing our carbon footprint and raising awareness.
Work with existing contractors/subcontractors and suppliers to reduce their environmental impact.
Consider environmental friendly products and service when considering new subcontractors and suppliers.
“What are the plans for this summer?”
“We are planning a similar schedule on our domestic routes as before. But we have with our new flight from KEF to AEY an fantastic options for direct connections after arrival in KEF to get up to the north of Iceland,” says Arni Gunnarsson.
“Air Iceland has commenced direct domestic services between Keflavik Airport and Akureyri Airport in North Iceland. The connection will facilitate tourist’s access to the North of Iceland. There will be up to six flights a week in winter and at least twice a week in summer. To begin with, this service will be offered to passengers departing on or arriving from international flights in Keflavik, enabling them to travel the whole way from Akureyri to their final destination in Europe or North America and back.”
“Why did you start the route?”
“We started the route with emphasis on the winter for 2 reasons: Firstly the utilization of accommodation in the south west corner of Iceland is very high, but in the Northern part you will still find very good accommodation available. Secondly the average stay of tourists in Iceland is shorter than in summer time and therefore the need for short and direct connection is more. We can with this connection offer passengers a direct connection to the morning flight from Kef departing for Europe. In the summertime we keep up the flight with 2 flights a week as we find it important to offer this route on a whole year basis.” “The new Belfast City route will commence from June 1, 2017 and will be operated using a 72-seat Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 turboprop. Air Iceland already has Aberdeen in Scotland. Why Belfast?” “Belfast is a fantastic growing city which offers a lot of exciting options for visitors, like the Titantic Museum, vibrant music and culture scene, golf courses of world class and wider variety of shopping. For the residence we offer a great connection to Iceland directly from the Belfast City Airport which is located just 15 minutes from the city center and due to being a part of Icelandair under which brand this route is marketed we can offer a great connection to North America with the ever increasing offer of destinations,” says Árni Gunnarsson.
